The Darkside Detective and Definitely Not Fried Chicken

Two games starting with the letter "D".

The Darkside Detective

This small pixel point and clicker has you play the titular Darkside Detective, which includes cases involving ghosts, zombies, and things not of this world! Yet due to the awesome writing and humor, it's always funny and never actually scary. Each case is also self contained with all the items you need to solve it being at the scene, along with easy hints on how to proceed built into the character's musings (so you don't have to press a big "hint" button or anything). On top of all that are some good ideas making this a really easy game to recommend. 

Definitely Not Fried Chicken 

This voxel game is a management one, starting in the tutorial chicken shop where you need to make rooms and decorate them with functional equipment like toilets in the restrooms and friers and chicken huts (for freshness) in the kitchen then hiring staff to handle said equipment. The colonel fires you right after the tutorial though so that you can go use your newly learned skills in building some other enterprise... drugs!? Yep. Not really my style so this one is a pass for me.

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel and My Night Job

Games in perma-horde mode!

Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel

This slow loading game has you playing in various Norse arenas against swarms of beasties, ghosts, and others while you do repetitive objectives within a time limit to ultimately summon the Jotunn boss of the level. While there are multiple characters, weapons, and maps and difficulty modes you could possibly choose from the vast majority are locked and you must do specific tasks to unlock... the game basically (grind mode activate!). I also wasn't too keep on the game pausing every time you level up to pick a perk, but given the game play I can't really think of a better way to have done that. Ultimately not for me.

My Night Job

This small and silly action platformer has hand drawn characters and you play as some guy recruited by the military to save x number of civilians from a haunted house (at least in level one) which endlessly spawns all sorts of violent spooks that range from ghosts, goblins, and zombies to robots with gatling guns (I hate those). You're also under the clock since if rooms get too full of bad guys not only do they kill the people you're meant to be saving, they start stomping until they break the room entirely - causing no more spawns to occur there! All up the game is a short and crazy experience that you should try out if you can find it for free. 

I hate Visual Novels... sometimes?

When players can't make meaningful decisions, is it still a game?

Return to Ash is a simple hand drawn art where you play as a dead person in the ghost land with loads of reading and options that don't really go anywhere? Too much novel and too little game for me. 

Universe for Sale has better (albeit weirder) art and animation set on Jupiter where the protagonist is a neckless, jointless, cult freak and again most of the dialogue doesn't go anywhere but forward. A few extra mini-games break up the tedium a tiny bit but ultimately its still reading a comic book. 

Eternights has animated anime style art (and full anime cut scenes that include full depictions of blood and gore [NICE]) which is also fully voiced. Its about some sort of zombie contagion outbreak and your protagonist has many action arcade segments of fighting them (complete movement and camera controls, dodging and striking mechanics and special moves). It's also very much a dating sim. WUT? Yeah. Because your companions perform better if they like you. Less narration / "thought bubbles" and funny nicely written dialogue. But you're still going through a single story with no branches. 

Lead the party in Eternights, and date them?

I guess VNs are more palatable for me the more they have other systems and mini games going on. How are they for you?

28 Years Later and the Bone Temple

Sequels to 28 Weeks Later.

28 Years Later

This movie focuses on a kid named Spike (played by Alfie Williams) who lives on the outer edge of the rage virus zone, and reintroduces us to the new and improved (mostly just more full-frontal naked) infected as he makes forays to the dangerous mainland. I'm not keen on the editing which keeps cutting to old tv shows to depict to the audience how this group of survivors learned to do things, and while Spike is put in a hard spot all throughout he keeps making bad choices which doesn't make him very likable. There are plenty of homages to the previous films and decent enough scares and action bits but really it just serves as an intro movie.

28 Years Later: the Bone Temple

The journey of Spike continues as he runs into... parkouring Satanists? That took a really strange turn! I am glad they stopped the strange cutting edits from the previous movie and there's actually a better story in this one which actually advances the "28" franchise a bit. Very good acting from the Bone Temple "residents" helps with this, and seeing a familiar face at the very end gives my high hopes for the third, upcoming 28 years movie. Recommended, though its probably better to get through the first 28 Year movie (above) before hoping right into this one.

Skald: Against the Black Priory and Blood West

Two more horror themed games.

Skald: Against the Black Priory

This old school pixel fantasy RPG tasks you with rescuing a lady from some distant islands (the Lovecraftian "outer isles") and rather quite immediately, bad stuff starts to happen. While the writing is solid and really gets you immersed in the world right away, the combat can get a bit tiresome especially in the narrower zones where some of your party of six will find themselves with nothing to do. Protip: get everyone bows and arrows when you are able. Still a fun ride, but as it is with most Lovecraftian tales don't expect a happy ending.

Blood West

This FPS western has you play an undead cowboy in a desert already crawling with undead. The pixely graphics belie a pretty decent game though, which includes skill upgrades, stealth, rewards for being a good shot and full inventory management (the kind that is annoying at times as you can't tetris all the loot into your pack to sell later). While the quests have some interesting stories attached to them, the respawning bad guys when you rest bit does suck as there's limited fast travel. Not one I finished due to these gripes, but at least it had a strong start?

Pathfinder: Can't Touch This

[Part of the Party Time journal]

A pair of frost giants and the lap running mammoth from earlier confront the party as they leave the Black Tower, but are no match for the heroes. Even the pair of rocs nesting in the tower who were attracted by the sounds of battle only get themselves dead or wounded, with the last remaining giant bird retreating back to its high up nest.

Proceeding below the party then uses the passphrase they found to get through the shining door into the lower basement where a strangely constructed room has Valeros shrink to half his size! While this makes his attacks weaker it also makes him harder to hit so he intentionally stays small for now.

Everyone else is protected from the shrinking magic by Ezren's shield, and they go on to beat another runeslave giant, smash a cauldron bearing golem (mostly Razmus with Shoanti blessings and then Kyra sanctified the cauldron), and fireball nuke the hell out of a zombie statue room. "Undead Giants" are the key words for things this team excels at murdering. An annoying wall demon keeps popping in and out of the walls spewing fire at them though, and it is with great relief when they finally catch that beast (a scanderig apparently) and slay it in its silo.

Advancing to the next large hall they are ambushed by five giant maidens who luckily can't hit the shrunken Valeros who pins them while the rest of the group takes them down. Resting up back in the zombie room, Merisiel soon spots a sneaky group of five dire bears and five halberd ogres stalking them and once again, Valeros blocks their progress and is untouchable as the enemies are destroyed.

The next little chamber has three hounds of Tindalos (apparently they can jump games too) get the drop on the party but are easy prey as again, they can't hit Valeros while his blind fighting and the high perception of everyone else makes their "hiding" kinda useless.

28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later

Movies about those infected... with rage!

28 Days Later 

Due to the actions of some eco-terrorists a lab grown and highly infectious "rage" virus is set loose. By the time comatose protagonist Jim (played by Cillian Murphy who also doubles as the eye candy for female viewers) wakes he finds a very different London waiting for him: one now home to zombies infected. It's funny that the start is very similar to The Walking Dead series but as the "monsters" here aren't undead the story can go in a different tangent. While this 2002 horror flick is showing its age, its still a decent watch that tells a complete story.

28 Weeks Later

The rage virus from the previous film has mostly subsided now and a US led NATO force (Jeremy Renner portrays one of their snipers) is resettling refugees into a heavily guarded safe zone. Of course, due to the total selfishness of two brats and the initial hesitation to use lethal force everything goes to hell when the virus re-emerges (and its up to a whole new cast to get through it). All up this is a much tighter film than the previous one and it also has a bigger budget, better effects, and more action pieces while continuing the theme of good intentions executed poorly always leads to someone dying. If you liked the first one or just enjoy zombie-esque type flicks in general, you'll like this one. 

Stalker 2: Science

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

A monolith emitter is what I recover from the psi site and I'm tasked with lugging it across to the chemical plant where Ward has their main base. En route I stop by Zalissya to save (a handful of) them against a heavy monolith attack before completing the delivery and Dr. Dalin quickly works out that Faust is going to try use the Duga radio wall to brainscorch everyone into serving the Monolith. Not if Ward can help it!

I participate in the assault, complete with Col. K's helicopter support which goes very well until Faust shows up with his doppelgangers and activates the radio wall, causing Col. K to crash somewhere over the horizon and many Ward troops to succumb and die on the spot. I make it out alone and report in to Dr. Dalin who suggests a Professor Ozersky at the nearby STC Malachite might hold the key to overcoming Faust's powers.

The scientist asks me to do something for him first which is to reactivate the abandoned Mirror facility and connect it's systems to Malachite. This involves a trip through some zombies and their controller and then clearing radar tracks of any obstruction... which happens to be a chimera!  As the door has locked behind me at this point I'm forced to use a narrow door (cheat) to slowly whittle down the great beast until it is slain. For this Ozersky tells me of some special psi-resistant helmet hidden in an old lab, no doubt teeming with mutants.

Stalker 2: Sabotage

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Ward badge grants me easy access to the Noontider base where they are having some leadership dispute due to recent sabotage. Luckily I can dodge that problem and just talk to one of their egg heads who claims he might be able to track down the SIRCAA device if he could get his hands on an inductor from the nearby Waste Processing Facility... which is now home to a controller mutant who uses mind controlled "zombies" as guards. This bastard is a tough cookie, more resilient than the kangaroo rat, blind dog and flesh packs I've been encountering so far but not as scary as those damned cloaking bloodsuckers (who for some reason look like Cthulhu).

With the inductor in hand I'm directed to install it at the Ward controlled Azimuth station and find the defenders all slain by traitorous Noontiders! A number of head shots and jammed weapons later I finally have the place to myself and use the plot device to boost the antennas strength, letting me eavesdrop on a conversation between Noontider Faust and a mole he has in Ward.

As Ward Camp Icarus was mentioned and is nearby I go there next and stop a sabotage attempt (by diffusing a psi emitter - with bullets) just in time before it can fry anyone's brains, then taking out the Ward traitor as he's on a call with Faust. Faust is crazy enough to then chat with me briefly, inviting me to find him and that scanner I've been trying to get back at the old Clear Sky base - if I can. Challenge accepted.

Warm Bodies and Venom: The Last Dance

A pair of corny movies.

Warm Bodies

This zombie comedy romance flick stars Nicholas Hoult as the protagonist zombie who falls for a very much alive girl.  This alternate view point is pretty original as its quirky nonsensical power of love plot. Might be a good pick for those of you who like the three C's in movies: cheesy, campy and corny but otherwise stay away.

Venom: The Last Dance

Closing out Tom Hardy's trilogy of Venom movies, this one has him on the run from both law enforcement and new alien scum sent by a bad guy who loves narration. It  certainly feels that they just wanted to get this over and done with many ridiculous scenes that should have ended up on the cutting room floor but I guess they really just wanted one last crazy ride with the anti-hero symbiote, so much so that they just whacked in a whole bunch of them in here to give them possibly their last chance of screen time. Definitely turn your brains off if watching this one. Not recommended.

Undying, Turmoil and Neko Ghost Jump

A trio of Epic freebies.

Undying

This zombie crafting survival game features a twist in that you play a mother already bitten in the intro, who must teach her young (and annoyingly useless) son how to survive in this apocalypse. Show him how to dismantle difficult machinery and defeat zombies, sure... but also show him how to get water from a fountain into a plastic bottle, how to water plants, and how to scavenge? He also whines A LOT.

While the game play is kind of ok but the stylistic character art is poor and it becomes readily evident that your main enemy in this game aren't the zombies - it's your own backpack and the lack of space there in. If you aren't keen on inventory management then this is not a game for you. Or me.

Turmoil

This 2D oil barony "almost" idle game is one with simple controls and simple decisions: after winning your desired plot of land from your competitors you send forth your hired dowsers to give you a hint of where to dig, then build the oil pumps to (hopefully) get the oil out and hire wagons to transport said oil to sell to the shops (where the price constantly fluctuates) or store in your own warehouse while waiting for prices to be more favorable.

Most of the action is automated, which lets you focus on how many things you have, where to place new things and if/where to selling to. Excess funds can be used to upgrade pretty much everything and that's the game loop. Surprisingly fun but gets repetitive fast.

Neko Ghost Jump

In this super silly platform game you play a cat on the cat planet trying to rescue his cat bride from scurvy space dogs. The main gimmick is that you must switch from 2D and 3D platforming because there might be tunnels you can only access in 3D view and then impossible diagonal jumps that become easy in 2D view.

I assume there's also some ghost mechanic as hinted by the title and intro cinematic but I never got that far as the game crashed on tutorial level 3. Not recommended.

Golden Kamuy (2024) and Reality Z

Changing up the format.

Golden Kamuy

Set in the late Meiji period in Japan, this live action movie focuses on an "immortal" soldier who apparently still needs money and stumbles upon a crazy treasure hunt involving map pieces having been tattooed onto people. There are some really nice action sequences here (though it's hard to feel worried for the immortal guy) as well as loads of world building and... bears? Yeah. Lots of bears. Anyway, I didn't realize this was based on a manga and worse: it simply ends with a ton of plot threads hanging because it wants a continuation. Sure there was an action / many action bits at the end but... none of them felt like a climax. All up this movie just introduces people and sets up the world. Don't bother watching it until there's a Golden Kamuy 2 (and possibly 3-5 at the rate its going).

Reality Z

In this one season show it's time for another zombie outbreak, this time in Brazil - with a strong focus on their version of a "Big Brother" reality TV house and production studio. Yep, there's jump scares (often happen after long boring shots of people walking slowly down an empty corridor), gore and people making idiotic decisions as per standard fare but this series has a super odd format, and is probably a lesson for me on why some people should always have plot armor. If I was to recommend a cut down version of the show (like I did for Helluva Boss) I'd say just start from episode 6. That said, I don't actually recommend watching it as it goes nowhere.

The Walking Dead: The Ones who Live

The return of Rick Grimes!

It's not just Daryl, Carol, Maggie and Negan getting their own shows post the completion of the original zombie show. This six episode series follows up on Michonne's quest (played by Danai Gurira) to find the long missing main character Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and what happened to them during the years they were missing.

The answer is a lot, and they somewhat wreck both characters with all the drama and somehow manage to squeeze in a useless bottle episode but hey, at least everything is resolved in this contained one season series. The zombies are almost an after thought but they are hideously cool as always. Only recommended for Walking Dead fans.

Callisto Protocol

Locked in with the monsters!

This single player sci-fi survival horror sees you imprisoned on what turns out to be the worst planet to be incarcerated as soon after the facility is overrun by humanoid monsters who are out to make you die in very violent and gory ways. It's especially cool since the graphics are really detailed! The voice actors and story are decent too!

While this is very reminiscent of Dead Space complete with an LED health tracker on your back (just ... why?) its not so much horror apart from the gore and jump scares for one simple reason: outside of a few set instances that you can sneak and stealth kill, you will be forced to hand to hand these things A LOT and win (or die in very specific and detailed ways).

Combat is pretty simple too, and these things drop currency that you need to create or upgrade tools, weapons and ammo so... the "horror" part really leaves the building when you are intentionally hunting the monsters down for loot. It's still a fun ride though and one I can recommend.

Back 4 Blood

How to take a good idea and then make it garbage.

This four person coop first person zombie horde shooter tries to emulate Left 4 Dead and sort of does it... until they put all of their own (mostly bad) ideas over the top of it as well. Lets start of with the good bits: good choice of characters (even though some are innately "better" with their passives than others), good reusing of maps to fit the story, and good range of "special infected" - especially the big ones.

Onto the bits we didn't like: the graphic for one special critter might be slightly altered to mean its a different special critter. A spidery spitting thing might sometimes shoot fireballs and other times shoot a slow moving swarm of bugs. A big armed thing might just use it as a club (which means you need to shoot its arm) or use the big arm to grab people (which means you need to shoot its head).

These minor differences are spelled out in the oh so stupid "card system". Each character can assemble a deck of 15 cards to build their guy up. More stamina, more damage with shotguns, whatever. You can buy these cards as you find them at random while playing levels, using currency you also have to find. Grind inserted!

The enemy deck shows what special creep you will run into as well as how fast the regular mobs will moving but there are times where it just puts absolute BS cards on like "hunger" (you are all hungry and are constantly losing health) and the like where it forces you to play fast and loose. This removal of player agency in deciding if they want to move fast or slowly and strategically is ABSOLUTELY STUPID.

The only worse design decision beyond that is not letting players start on a mission they failed. So yeah, if you have a limited amount of game time you'd better win all the way to that next checkpoint maybe 3 or 4 missions away or you are going to be starting again. These made an otherwise fun game, absolute garbage. Do yourself a favor and skip it.

Blades in the Heart: Gluttony and Pestilence

[Part of the Party Time journal]

The following session the team is split up early - mom accepts a challenge from the assassin Steiner who has kidnapped Mother Narya (and put a bomb around her), DL is tricked by Father Yoren (who is actually possessed with his murderous ex Mercy) to go have a drink at the tavern where Grace (his current girlfriend) works, Rose is convinced by her friend Klyra to give herself over to the Ironhook guards as an exchange to get Klyra's brother Harker out, and Juris pursues Roslyn Dimmer (who was once Nyryx's vessel) through a ghost door as she dog-naps Nyryx the second.

Mom wins her duel and disables the bomb, DL one punches to KO and disables the suicide vest of Father Yoren's Mercy, but s/he gets a shot off that injures Grace, Rose simply lets the transfer happen then closes her eyes (turns invisible) and flies away (LOL I forgot she could do that), and Juris gets his corgi back but is left by Roslyn in the ghost realm with some zombie hollows and the demon Master Slane. Alas, zombie hollows can be controlled by his Lord of Nature ability and Slane fights so poorly that the demon is quickly overwhelmed by them and Juris' lightning. Juris then helps the zombies devour him before escaping out of the ghost field and taking Mercy out of Father Yoren, anchoring her to a bottle which he returns to DL (a bottle of Mercy). He also then tinkers with the TNT explosives DL and Mom recovered.

While the others then regroup to take down more ritual sites (as that is the driving tension I'm using with the timer ticking down), Juris decides to go off on his own and gets Matt Demon's help in tracking down Roslyn (who seems capable of ghost field hopping) for some payback. They eventually corner her in the basement of the now defunct Cathedral of the Ecstasy of the Flesh and using a single stick of TNT collapse the structure on her. She almost dies, so Juris bottles her spirit and devours her body.

Meanwhile at the Gaddoc Rail Station, DL, Mom, Rose and Mara go to find all the station staff dead including the passengers on the now parked train from Tycheros. The victims include mom's contact, Veleris, whose journal details a deadly plague spreading in that Northern nation. Following his journal, the heroes (immune because tier VII armor) collect and burn the corpses while Mara informs the authorities. As this is the first train available to them (the previous ones were all ferrying drafted soldiers to the war in the South), they then commandeer this one with DL driving to reach the next ritual sites further out from the barrier.

Gloomhaven: Voice of the Mountain

[Part of the Party Time journal] 

After wiping out a Gloom cult gathering (complete with zombies and demons) at their ritual chamber with only DL getting KOed, we visit the Shrine of Strength to try get stronger by standing on pressure plates while being attacked by monsters... an interesting training method for sure! I'm the one that drops in that mission while Juris gets through all the doors to get the final chest. We then go up a mountain to investigate rumors of a dragon and instead get ambushed by Inox and elementals which knock Juris out, but are in turn wiped out by the three brothers. Jim's pretty good with his heals, disintegrating ray and spider bots!

While up there we hear a strange, beckoning voice and follow it into a cave system crawling with enemies, but as the mission this time is simply to open all the doors I use my rat-ninja skills to sneak through them all while the others basically hold the first room. Once all the doors are open the voice booms and disintegrates the remaining enemies, then asks us to free it. Suuuure, before doing that we return to the city to rest up and try learn more about it. Hail suggests the knowledge we seek is in the Shrine of the Depths, so we go there next and retrieve a chest from giant crab monsters and laser shooting eye stalk tentacles. At this point we're all pretty tough now, each having maxed out  at level 9 through the course of these adventures.

Blades in the Dark: Against the Undead

[Part of the Party Time journal]

As Juris hadn't heard from his pal Nyryx for awhile the team sets off to find her, attuning her location to be in the previously wealthy but now left to decay sector of Six Towers. There they break into the mansion of the Dimmer Sisters but are caught almost immediately and are split up with Rose and mom stuck indoors with the two sisters and a mechanical hull spider while DL and Juris are outside with a tree that summons spirits and eight hulls (spirits animating armor), all of whom are Nyryx in spirit (she was chopped up)!

DL holds off the ghosts while Juris convinces all of Nyryx to stand down and put her back together in a bottle again. Rose KO's one of the sisters and disables the spider while mom accidentally kills the other sister with a warning shot... right between the eyes. Using his new tempest ability, Juris lightning bolts the tree (on his second attempt) to destroy it, sealing the ghost portal. They then take two of the now empty hulls and the prisoner sister before the Spirit Wardens arrive.

Juris then busies himself putting Nyryx into the remaining Dimmer Sister as well as training some of his other captured spirits to inhabit the hulls before experimenting with more Lure on a rat, witnessing it go right into the Spark Grounds carnival where someone is making a large force of... hollows (aka zombies)? While this is going on DL, Mom and Rose try get to the orphans at the club again but this time the carriage takes them near an underground tunnel where they are ambushed by a large group of vampires! Unfortunately for them, sound carries rather well through the tunnel and Rose commands them to sleep, which all but one does.

DL and mom take down the leader pretty easily before the rest can wake which means they are easy prey for the vigilantes. Once again, the team returns to base to regroup and head next to the circus where Juris remembers his time mind-melded to a rat to get to the secret basement of currently dormant zombies. Here they KO the "necromancer" who is just pulling souls out, but are pinned when the remainder of the clowns now allied with the Old Crows enters the basement.

They don't hesitate to ambush these evil doers but are suddenly out numbered when the leader activates the zombies just before she gets beheaded by DL. Fearing that the Spirit Wardens will arrive before they can get out of this quagmire, Juris pulls out the hand of Kotar and uses it (eating one stress / insta KO) to blast all the zombies into the next dimension. In this game, that's the ghost field. With the basement now empty of threats, the team quickly carry Juris out of there and escape unseen!

Baldur's Gate 3: Wrong Way

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Despite his startling revelation, the team vote to keep Gale in the party which is a good call as his spells and ogre mercenaries come in handy in wiping out the duergars and their idiotic dark elf leader. While their ogre allies are slain, the enslaved deep gnomes (including the same one from the goblin's lair) are saved and show the team the way to the shadow-cursed lands near Moonrise Towers.

Conveniently, Elminster is here waiting for them to give Gale's bomb a "tune-up" so that he no longer needs to devour magic items and instead can self detonate at will. Does the great mage then join the party to stop this impending world-ending doom? Nope, he buggers off as usual to do something else.

Anyway, the shadow-cursed lands are aptly named as anything that doesn't have light takes damage in the darkness and anything dead (unless its a briar plant enemy) turns into a shadow zombie thing. It's an annoying area to traverse at the start due to all the hidden "shadow" enemies but clearing them out improves the situation. Eventually the team find their way up to a mountain pass and outside the cursed lands and, after fire walling some undead idiots, spot a huge ruined temple in the distance. Could this finally be Moonrise Towers? Halsin says no, they're going the wrong way.

All of Us are Dead

Korean High School zombies!

All of Us are Dead (Season 1)

Ah, another zombie series - but this one starts at a high school, and what better way to showcase that than to put a huge emphasis on bullying? Yes, you will absolutely hate some people in this currently one season show but that makes it all the better as students band together to try to survive. The high death count is nice, and while the zombies are almost just "guys and gals with ketchup" the vast majority of them are athletic and nimble which makes for excellent physical action pieces that you can only get with this running type of zombie. There's also a unique trait for the zeds I won't spoil here, but it really clinches the show into a winner for me. Recommended! Not sure if there'll be a season two, but I'll definitely watch it if they make it!